The so-called Short Message Service (SMS) is a point-to-point or point-to-multipoint service which enables a user to send messages to and receive text messages from other users of a communications network. The SMS attempts to deliver a message to a mobile terminal whenever th e terminal is registered to the network, even when the terminal is engaged in a voice of data call. The terminal may also roam throughout the network and still be capable of sending and receiving messages. A terminal configured for SMS provides methods for the user to receive, read, write/edit, clear, send, and save messages. The connection of a standard keyboard to the terminal facilitates the generation and editing of text messages by the user.
The network stores messages in at least one Message Center (MC), and Mobile Terminated (MT) messages are sent to the terminal by the MC. Various protocol layers receive the messages and check their contents. If the contents are valid, and assuming that there is room for incoming text messages in the memory of the terminal, the message is received and stored. Otherwise, the message is rejected.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,644,351 (Zabarsky et al.) discloses a paging system that enables messages to be sent to a remote unit, and which has a capability for the remote unit to transmit a message-received acknowledgement signal back to a central site. The paging system of Zabarsky et al. also enables a message-presented verification to be transmitted from an addressed pager back to the central site.
Reference can be had to various wireless communication protocols such as the TIA Interim Standards IS-136 and IS-137, and also to a document entitled "TDMA Forum, Implementation Guide: Short Message Terminals Compliant With IS-136 and IS-137" (Ed. D. Holmes, vers. 7.0, Apr. 20, 1995). These documents specify one type of SMS and the various system and terminal level protocols elements required to provide SMS. This latter document describes in sections 3.2.1 and 3.2.2 a Delivery Acknowledgement and a Manual Acknowledgement capability, respectively. By example, a message "Can you meet me this evening? &lt;NTC&gt;Yes&lt;NTC&gt;No", where NTC is a non-text character, is said would allow the user to select a response from "Yes" or "No", and consequently cause the terminal to send response codes 0 or 1.
Reference may also be had to protocol IS-136.1, Rev. A, Feb. 12, 1996, Section 7 (Point-to-Point Teleservices), for a description of SMS Deliver, SMS Delivery ACK, and SMS Manual ACK message formats and protocol elements. When the SMS Delivery ACK is specified, the mobile station automatically transmits the acknowledgement message upon delivery (i.e., display) of a stored SMS message to the user. When the SMS Manual ACK is specified, the mobile station transmits the acknowledgement message, and the user's response, after delivery and the user's input.
Various other types of protocol elements are also described in protocol IS-136.1, Rev. A, Feb. 12, 1996, Section 7. See, e.g., Section 7.1.3, which describes a Call Back Number protocol element, a Call Back Number Presentation Indicator protocol element, and an Urgency Indicator protocol element. The Call Back number protocol element enables a call back number associated with a SMS message to be identified. The Urgency Indicator protocol element is used to allow a sender of a SMS message to provide levels of urgency to the message.
Also described in IS-136.1, Rev. A, Feb. 12, 1996, Section 7.1.3 is a Delivery Acknowledgement Request protocol element and a Manual Acknowledgement Request protocol element. The Delivery Acknowledgement Request protocol element governs whether or not a recipient mobile terminal shall automatically return an acknowledgement message to an originating mobile terminal, after the recipient mobile terminal receives a SMS message from the originating mobile terminal and delivers (i.e., displays) the SMS message to a user of the recipient terminal. The Manual Acknowledgement Request protocol element governs whether or not the originating mobile terminal requests to be provided with an acknowledgement that the user of the recipient terminal inputs information into the recipient terminal in response to reading a displayed SMS message.
Conventional mobile terminals that operate in accordance with a wireless communication protocol (e.g., IS-136) generally have a capability that enables a user to specify states of various types of protocol elements of the wireless communication protocol, prior to the user composing a text message (and/or editting a retrieved text message) within the mobile terminal. By example, for the SMS Delivery ACK protocol element, the user may operate his mobile terminal so as to specify either "on" or "off", for indicating whether or not the mobile station shall automatically transmit an acknowledgement message upon delivery (i.e., display) of a stored SMS message to the user.
Unfortunately, however, conventional mobile terminals do not have a capability that enables the user to specify protocol element states while the mobile terminal is operating in a mode where the user is composing and/or editting a text message. As can be appreciated, this can cause problems for a user who, after composing and/or editting a text message in a mobile terminal, recognizes that one or more protocol element states should be modified before the text message is transmitted from the mobile terminal.
It can therefore be appreciated that it would be desirable to provide a radiotelephone that operates in accordance with a wireless communication protocol, and which has a capability for enabling a user to specify states of various types of protocol elements of the wireless communication protocol, after composing and/or editting a text message in the radiotelephone. This capability would enable user to place the applicable wireless communication protocol into a particular, selected configuration, and would also enable the text message to be subsequently transmitted from the radiotelephone as part of a SMS message, using the selected configuration of the wireless communication protocol.
It would also be desirable to provide a radiotelephone having a capability for enabling a user to modify information pertaining to multiple sets of protocol elements of the wireless communication protocol, and for enabling the user to select a particular one of these sets for placing the wireless communication protocol into a particular, selected configuration. This would also enable the text message to be transmitted from the radiotelephone using the selected configuration.